Area Jobless Rate Leaps To 6%

Economists Cite Gulf Deployment, Decline In Commercial Building

October 31, 1990|By DAVID RESS Staff Writer

NEWPORT NEWS — Unemployment rose sharply on the Peninsula last month as the mobilization of local service men and women cut retail sales and construction work continued to slide, economists said Tuesday.

The Newport News unemployment rate jumped to 6.0 percent from 5.2 percent and Hampton's rate rose to 5.9 percent from 5.4 percent, the Virginia Employment Commission said. The Williamsburg and James City County rates were also up sharply.

Virginia's unemployment rate rose to 4.3 percent from 4.1 percent in August as students started seeking after-school jobs, the commission said.

The Hampton Roads rate increased to 5.0 percent from 4.7 percent, as the number of people without jobs in the metropolitan area rose to 32,040 from 29,980. Total employment in Hampton Roads fell by 1,600 jobs to 595,100.

Commission economist William Mezger said much of the rise in local unemployment seems to be due to the mobilization of 35,000 Hampton Roads-based service men and women to the Persian Gulf.

"Retail trade employment is down more this year than it should be" at the end of the summer tourism season, Mezger said. "It seems to be be cause the troops are gone," he said.

Local retail employment fell in August, in large part because the Persian Gulf mobilization forced local soldiers, sailors and airmen to leave moonlighting jobs. But now, slowing retail sales seem to be causing additional job cuts at area stores, Mezger said. Retailing employment fell by 2,200 over the month to 120,900.

Mezger said Hampton and Newport News may have been particularly hard hit because of the large number of stores serving military personnel at Langley Air Force Base and Fort Eustis.

Service firms also cut staff in September, contributing to a drop of 500 jobs in the metropolitan area. Mezger said most of those cuts were probably due to seasonal layoffs at Colonial Williamsburg and in nearby hotels as well as at Virginia Beach hotels.

State figures show Hampton Roads' construction jobs fell by 1.9 percent during the month to 37,000. Construction employment is down 3.9 percent, or 1,500 jobs, from the September, 1989 total.

Booker said single-family house construction has been fairly steady, but added that a glut of office and industrial space has slashed commercial construction, the type of work which had provided most building jobs in Newport News and Hampton.

Sluggish real estate markets - here and across the country - have hurt the local lumber business, where employment fell 12.5 percent from last year's levels to 2,100, Mezger said.

Overall manufacturing employment fell by 700 jobs during to month to 67,900 although the area's shipyards and other transportation equipment manufacturers hired an additional 100 people, bringing their total to 34,800.

Transportation employment rose by 700 jobs during September, to 28,400, mainly because of work loading military cargo for the Persian Gulf, Mezger said. Local and state government employment also rose to 80,000 from 75,400, because of the reopening of schools for the new school year, he said.